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The team announced Friday evening that Dez Bryant will miss four to six weeks. Bryant was injured on the second-to-last play of Friday’s practice in the Alamodome.

An MRI confirmed the team’s fear of a high ankle sprain. Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones had expressed hope that Bryant, who had a spectacular start to training camp, would be out for only a few days or a week, but now they are faced with an injury that could have ripple effects to start the season.

With this injury, the Cowboys’ top three picks are all injured. Second-round linebacker Sean Lee has been sidelined since Tuesday with a strained quadriceps, and fourth-round safety Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, who had shoulder surgery in March, has not been cleared to practice yet.

SAN ANTONIO — Dallas Cowboys rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant, the team’s first-round selection, was helped off the field by two athletic trainers after suffering a right ankle injury near the end of the training practice Friday.

Bryant stayed on the Alamodome turf after cornerback Orlando Scandrick broke up a pass on a crossing route. Jon Kitna’s pass was thrown slightly behind Bryant, and Scandrick appeared to land on the prized rookie’s lower right leg. He was helped off the field, with Bryant keeping weight off it.

Bryant will have an MRI to determine the severity of the injury.

Let’s hope its not as bad as it sounds. All we can do at this point is wait for the MRI results.

Sometimes in life there are people who do really well and have all the luck, the looks and the money and barely lift a finger. Then there are average everyday people who work their asses off and live day to day, paycheck to paycheck and feel as if they are going nowhere.

Some of you may relate to one or the other, or even both. Or, maybe you are in the third division – lazy, poor, no-good-for-nothing… you get the idea. I’d like to think the majority of people are in the middle, like myself. Good, honest people who work hard for a living, and are always hoping for a better day, a better way.

To some football is just a game, for others its everything. Its a lot like life.

While I know and believe the Cowboys can do better, I also want to believe they work their tails off every practice and every game. But you know when you work your hands to the bone, putting in overtime and taking work home just to stay above water, yet you still fall short? All you can really do is keep fighting and praying to the Lord to give you the strength to keep fighting another day.

This season has been a rough ride so far. Six weeks into the season and I still don’t know who this team really is. With a couple of exceptions, the team has been very unstable. I’m all for a new hero and/or leader every week but when you go into the game unsure of who you can count on, it’s not a good thing.

Being a loyal fan to this team hasn’t been an easy job either this season. Dreading going into work because you don’t want to talk football around the water cooler has become all too familiar. Defending a team that can’t seem to finish the job can get extremely exhausting quick.

In each loss there was a chance to come back, but that right there is the one thing that makes a good team, a championship team. You have to be able to capitalize on the opponent’s mistakes and make the impossible happen.

There is nothing in this world that could ever change my allegiance to this team. I honestly believe its in my genes and running through my blood. Being a Dallas Cowboys fan is the only thing I have in common with the majority of my family, especially my father. I could never let it go, no matter what.

We’ve been through good times and bad. Although it seems lately all we hear about is the bad. But we are strong. We got through times with Terrell Owens, and Pacman Jones for heaven’s sake. We can take anything!

I have to admit, I thank God that Jerry Jones didn’t go for Michael Vick (but that’s another story, another time).

So while it may seem like I’ve been quiet, I’ve just been sitting back trying to get to know my team. I’m too optimistic, and more often than not, it ends up breaking my heart. But that’s who I am.

I get pumped up before every Cowboys game, and in my heart and soul I believe MY team is going to win every game. From the moment the game kicks off until the last whistle blows I don’t give up hope. I have never been able to turn off a game while its in progress and I don’t believe I’ve ever said the words, “My team sucks!” And, I never will.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to be critical of your team, or to be truthful when the truth hurts. I’m just saying that’s not me. To each their own, we all have our own way to celebrate or mourn, and I love all my Rowdy friends!

We are six weeks into this season; I have to ask all the Cowboy faithful the same question I kept asking myself over and over yesterday? Is this Dallas Cowboy’s team already in crisis mode or is it only Memorex? As the sun comes up over Valley Ranch this morning, I don’t think the 30-24 overtime loss on Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals will go over very well.

The Cardinals?

Seriously?

I believe I can safely say that is not the Cardinal’s team of old. I watched a Cardinal’s team that did not fear the mighty Cowboys and may have set precedence around the league that no team needs to again.

Was that the case at University of Phoenix Stadium?

I just kept asking myself that same thing. When my cell phone began ringing right after the game, all I could tell people was “I don’t know, they’re not the same Cardinals everybody is used to beating up on”.

The bigger question might be reversed: Who exactly are these Cowboys? All seemed fine in early September, with wins coming against Cleveland, Philadelphia and Green Bay. All of a sudden comes a slip-up at home against Washington, and followed up by a totally uninspired win against the Bengals.

Earlier this week the talk around the NFL began with story lines like, “Coach Wade Phillips isn’t tough enough”, “T.O. wants more touches and the star of the NFL’s Bad Boys “Pacman” Jones is showing off his old TNT wrestling skills in one of Dallas’s finer hotels, drawing headlines across the nation”.

Naturally, when Dallas started slow in the desert, I concluded that the Cowboys were distracted, haunted by a week of controversy. After the game, it turned into a main storyline from the west coast to the east coast and all parts in between. Are the Cowboys now in crisis mode or this picture only Memorex?

I personally think that this is a big misconception that stuff like that can affect a pro team. Jerry Jones’s Cowboys dealt with all that type of hype in 1990s’ and still walked away with three Super Bowl titles.

The thing that I am finding so hard to understand is that the Cowboys own one of the league’s best offenses and ran on seven cylinders most of the time yesterday. Now I know Tony threw for 321 yds and three touchdowns, but he also fumbled three times while losing one. T.O. only caught four passes. Jason Witten got more attention for false-start penalties until he caught the 30-yard pass just before Nick Folk kicked the 52-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.

What exactly happened to that high-octane offense?

You got me on that one!

Was it the special teams that gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown so quick that a lot of fans were still standing in the pre-game concession line? The same specials team, incidentally that allowed the game-sealing blocked punt? Was it a much uninspired Tony Romo and Terrell Owens that looked like they both wanted to be somewhere else? How about the offensive line that spent more time picking Romo up off the ground than they did picking up on-coming Cardinal rushers?

Through it all, I will try to add some perspective to yesterday’s game. I will give the Cardinals credit for a nice win, and I can only hope this game was a real eye opener. I can hope this team can come to the reality that this is the NFL, and the NFL stands for just that, The National Football League; I would like to say to the team though; The NFL can also stand for “Not For Long” if they keep playing like they played on Sunday”.

I honestly did not think the Cowboys would be sitting 6-0, but I knew that was the possibility. I did not ever dream that this team would become so lethargic and complacent as they have shown since winning there first 3 games. Right now Cowboy fans at this moment; I don’t know what this team needs to do. So I ask all the Cowboy faithful out there? “Is this team in crisis mode, or is it really just Memorex”? Only next week will answer that for all of us.